Growing numbers of “spoon-fed” students are turning to counsellors for help as
they struggle to cope with the academic demands of studying at Oxbridge.

Oxford and Cambridge are both reporting a rise in referrals to university counselling services amid claims new students lack the “resilience” to get through degree courses.

Professor Guy Claxton, author of the book Building Learning Power, said teenagers were increasingly led through bite-sized GCSEs and A-levels by teachers – gaining a string of straight A grades and winning places at top universities.

But he warned that many then suffered a culture shock as they struggled to cope with the increased demands of higher education.

According to figures, up to a fifth Cambridge students are referred to counsellors at some point during their degree, he said.

Addressing a conference, Prof Claxton, co-director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at Winchester University, said: “[Oxford and Cambridge] are seeing a year-on-year rise in the number of young people who arrive apparently confident, with four to five As at A-level, but lacking resilience, lacking the ability to cope if they do not get great success.

“Fifteen to 20 per cent of Cambridge students will find their way to the counsellors’ waiting room – 1,200 did so last year at Oxford.

“They are very clear that these high-achieving youngsters are becoming more and more vulnerable because they are being spoon-fed more and more efficiently by their teachers to get them through their exams.

“There is more modularisation, more packaging and learning is more chopped up.”

Many academics have complained that students are starting university lacking the independence and basic inquiry skills needed to get by on a degree course.

At some universities, traditional three-year degrees have been extended by 12 months to teach the skills that students failed to learn at school and college.

Most GCSEs and A-levels are currently broken up into bite-sized modules that students can re-sit to boost their overall grades.

But last month the Coalition pledged to scrap modular courses at GCSE to give pupils more exposure to “deep learning”.

Senior figures at Oxford and Cambridge’s counselling services told the Times Educational Supplement that many students felt like failures if they struggled to understand difficult issues.

Mark Phippen, head of Cambridge’s counselling service, said: “We are quite aware of the number of students who are obviously very academically able but paradoxically lack confidence.

“That may come about from no longer being a large fish in a small pond, but also people being less prepared to take on challenges without others helping them out.”

Alan Percy, clinical director of Oxford’s counselling service, told the TES: “The kind of conversation I often have with a lot of clients is that students often don’t grasp the full meaning of learning.

“Learning is finding out something that you did not know and struggling with it. It’s almost as if, if they do not know something immediately they feel as though they are failing.”